


behind the shadow (and unhinged deep darkness)

by ocean_breezc



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, BAMF Nara Shikamaru, Child Soldiers, F/M, Family, Gen, Genius Shikamaru, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Konohagakure | Hidden Leaf Village, Nara Shikamaru Needs a Hug, Nara Shikamaru-centric, POV Nara Shikamaru, Shikamaru is practically Shikaku 2.0, Shikari is Shikamaru's lil' sister, Third Shinobi War, Uchiha Itachi Needs a Hug, What a drag, angsty will appear on the late chapter, big brother Shikamaru, but i'm the author, but it took too many effort, he learned about bitterness of life in hard way, hehe don't be wrong, i really should stop torturing my mc, in which Shikamaru was born 3 years earlier than canon, my poor baby shika :(, or so the gossip flew, shinobi life isn't sunshine and butterfly, you may found out the fluff and humor in early chapter
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-25
Updated: 2020-11-25
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:40:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,281
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27707771
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ocean_breezc/pseuds/ocean_breezc
Summary: Shikamaru was born 3 years earlier, at the late night of September 22nd. Thus, his story's twisted and morphed since then, hovering in unsteady position until Fate began to plotted the path he took. As he grew up, he learned in a hard way that life wasn't all about butterfly and sunshine.[Motivated Shikamaru fanfic]
Relationships: Nara Shikaku & Nara Shikamaru, Nara Shikaku & Nara Shikamaru & Nara Yoshino, Nara Shikamaru & Nara Yoshino, Nara Shikamaru & Original Female Character(s), Nara Shikamaru & Uchiha Itachi
Comments: 6
Kudos: 50





	behind the shadow (and unhinged deep darkness)

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [The Realm of Shadows](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/717278) by Blackbird0. 



> Sorry for any mistakes in this story, because I'm still a newbie. And forgive me for the grammar error(s), English isn't my mother tongue and I haven't graduate from middle school yet :D

At the late night of September 22nd, Nara Shikamaru was born in Konoha's General Hospital as a healthy baby boy Nara Shikaku and Nara Yoshino had always hoped to have. He's adorable, wriggling in his blanket and yawning like a lazy Nara he is. Shikaku almost snorted at the uncanny resemblance with his clan people's behaviour.

Yoshino sat on the bed with a soft smile on her face, half-lying on the mattress that was bent to support her back. She had just finished breast-feeding him for the first time. Her wife turned her head at him, tired and exhausted eyes stared at him for a while before they lingered back on the sight of their newborn baby. She rocked Shikamaru gently, happy tears glinted on the corner of her eyes. Shikaku sighed, but a genuine smile blossomed on his lips for the first time in a few months. He walked closer towards his wife's bed, silently observing the interaction between the half-sleeping baby boy and Yoshino. 

He held out his hand, carefully stroking Shikamaru's chubby cheeks. He was afraid that if he put a little too much strength on his fingers, his son would shattered into pieces like a fragile thing. 

Yoshino eyed him with amused look on her expression, a small laughter escaped past her lips. It drew Shikamaru's attention as the baby opened his half-lidded eyes, wriggling once more soundlessly with curiousity sparkling in his black orbs. "There, there," She soothed their baby, then handing the bundle of blanket to Shikaku, who automatically stared at her in surprise. "Jeez, don't be like that, Shikaku. You want to hold him too, don't you?" 

He took the newborn baby from her arms, hugging Shikamaru close to his chest hesistanly, too scared that he would drop him if he wasn't careful enough. His heart fluttered when he saw the baby smilling at him. Thus, he smile softly as he gently sat beside his wife's bed.

"Hello, Shikamaru. Welcome to the world." he whispered, his smile widened without him realizing.

* * *

For a half year old baby, Shikamaru was unsuprisingly intelligent. He had started to uttering syllables at the age of five months, forming words a few weeks after that, and began to blabbering short sentences after his sixth month in the world. He was a curious little boy, his eyes always flickered and followed each of their movements. He was quite active too for a Nara (especially a mere baby Nara, most of them are annoyingly too lazy). Heck, he even started to messing with the shogi board everytime his father played with another clansmen, much to their amusement. It would be simple if Shikamaru simply threw the pieces around or sliding it to the random square of shogi board. No, unfortunately. Once, he moved the the Shikaku's knight to an effective blocking spot, and it was exactly where he want to shifted his pawn to. 

"Checkmate," Shikamaru grinned lazily. "Tou-san win."

Nara Enshiro had a hard time to resisted the urge to dropped his jaw. Shikaku barely managed not to show the same reaction as his clansman.

(Shikamaru has started playing shogi at two years old, he quickly mastered the basic in the span of a day. Soon, he began to learn about the strategies, along with pros and cons from each of it. After a month, he already has an ability to beat seven years old Nara children.)

The other time Shikamaru surprised him, a few weeks after the shogi thing, Shikaku has yet to lose his cool.

"Tou-san!" His son waddled - _ran_ \- towards him with his tiny, untrained chubby legs. Shikaku almost flabbergasted at the odd sight that made Yoshino gaped in shock the first time she saw Shikamaru ran all around the house. He abruptly shut the door and crouched in front of the exhausted little Nara with analytic eyes

"Shikamaru," He called, and Shikamaru's cute toddler's eyes made some butterfly fluttered inside his belly. He grimaced internally, wondering if he could do some serious conversation if his adorable son kept making himself want to cooed at him. He shook the coddling intention away and asked his son carefully. "When did you start running? I haven't even see you walking last week."

Shikamaru yawned, "Kaa-san's talking about lazy dad and how she won't give you any dinner if you keep sleeping for hours." He said blandly, if not a bit enthusiast. "Grumpy Kaa-san make me want to move away."

He was getting used to his son's long sentences despite being a mere toddler. And being a Nara he was, he sighed and muttered his favourite phrase, "Troublesome.", in tired manner. But his brain went on many thoughts before he could stop himself from thinking about how fast Shikamaru's development increased as he grew older. His son was seven months old, yet he already knew how to talked fluently in simple sentences. Sure, Nara children's brain has slightly different brain structure compared with normal person that made them learned about new things rather easier and faster than average children did. But Shikamaru made it to a whole new level of _fast_ development.

He knew about the life of child prodigies he had met before, one of them was in his generation, and now turned out as one of the most dangerous shinobi between the Five Hidden Villages. Namikaze Minato may looked sunny and charming (as many people would referred him), but he knew better than the calm facade. After all, no child soldiers lived a life without being pained by the war. Hatake Kakashi was the other case. The last Hatake graduated as a genin at 5, chuunin at 6, and jounin at 11. Yet the war had torn and broke him after two members of his team didn't survive after many disasterous mission. 

Shikaku couldn't help but worrying about his son's life in the future.

And the next time Shikamaru surprised him, Shikaku really lose his cool.

"Tou-san! You're back!" One-and-a-half years old Shikamaru poked his head behind the wall. He crawled towards him _on the wall_ enthusiastically, looking exicted with many spinning idea that reflected on his eyes.

The Nara Clan Head nearly caught a cardiac arrest when he saw it. He quickly abandoned his coat and scrolls on the ground.

"Shikamaru," His tone was calm, but his mind was a perfect definition of wild storm. "Where and _why_ did you learn about that? I don't know your motivation is that high when you barely want to wake up before afternoon."

Shikamaru blinked once, twice, his face flushed, "Uh- I-" He stuttered. "Kaa-san kept bragging about me not wanting to get up. Then I saw Yui-san walking on the ceilling to avoid her teammate's ninken when the dog chase her. I asked her how to do it, so- uh-" He ducked his head in embarassement, then he blurted out. "You know, I just want to walk away from Kaa-san's grasp. Kaa-san's scary when she's mad! Beside I thought both of you will feel proud if I do something useful." 

"That's... the reason?" He managed to gather his mind just in time when Shikamaru lifted his gaze.

His son spluttered, face reddened even more, "Please just don't tell her if it's something bad. I don't mean it, I swear! Kaa-san is just- scary!"

(Also, he started to ran everywhere on the ceiling when his younger clans(wo)men chase him all around the house, much to his mother's frustation.)

* * *

This time, Shikaku resited the urge to massage his temples. Raising a toddler like Shikamaru was _really_ **_really_ **troublesome.

Especially if his own son befriended another clan heir, _hell_ , an Uchiha clan heir.

What had his son getting himself into?


End file.
